"Judge Webster, thank you, and welcome to New York
everyone. And I particularly wanted to thank the Secretary. We'll forgive her
for coming from Arizona. We can make her an honorary New Yorker."

(Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet
Napolitano: "I was born here.")

"Were you really? We'd like to make you a taxpayer
actually. And particularly an old friend of mine Senator Hart, who I've known
for a long time. But also two others who are great patriots like the Senator and
Secretary. Norm Augustine and Martin O'Malley, both of whom I've been lucky
enough to work with in Baltimore many years ago, and the great State of Maryland
is doing okay. And you're watching our Defense spending Mr. Augustine?"

(Homeland Security Advisory Council Member Norman
Augustine: "It's all in good shape.")

"Way to go. I did want to thank everybody, seriously, for
coming to New York this morning. We strongly believe in your work and not only
does our Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, sit on your Council, but our Deputy
Mayor for Operations Ed Skyler participated in your Homeland Security Alert
System Task Force last year.

"And I don't think you could have picked a more fitting
place for today's meeting, after all we are the gateway to the rest of our
country. We are also the world's financial capital and the home to many highly
visible, sensitive American icons - like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire
State Building.

"And it's for these reasons that we have been attacked by
terrorists before - and it's for these same reasons that we continue to be a
prime target for terrorists. When anybody around the world gets arrested, they
have maps of New York City in their pocket and really seldom any place else. And
the reality is one that Commissioner Kelly and the NYPD and our great Fire
Department and Office of Emergency Management, and all the other agencies that
comprise our first responder group, confront head-on every single day. And the
reality that if somebody's going to attack, the probability is that we would be
ground zero again. And it's why, over the past eight years, our Administration
has spared no expense in making New York City the safest, most secure city in
the nation.

"We devote a thousand of our police officers full-time to
intelligence and counterterrorism efforts. Our Police Department budget is about
$8 billion annually and if you add the Fire Department in and the other agencies
you're over $12 billion that we spend to keep people safe in this city - safe
from street crime, but also safe from attacks from people outside of this
country.

"Our state-of-the-art Lower Manhattan Security
Initiative, for instance, is protecting our financial infrastructure through a
network of cameras, radiation detectors, and license plate readers. With
Department of Homeland Security funding, we're expanding this program to create
a similar security zone around Midtown Manhattan, including where we are right
now.

"But this initiative - like all our counter-terrorism
efforts - relies not only on technology, but also on manpower. And over the past
eight years, with some help from DHS, we've reinvigorated and strengthened what
are without a doubt the best-trained police and fire departments in the world,
and our superb Office of Emergency Management.

"And last month, we were able to share some of this
expertise with the rest of the world when members of our Urban Search &
Rescue Team, 80 police officers and firefighters, were deployed to Haiti.

"A highly trained, well-equipped police department has
allowed us to foil terrorist plots over the years - including a plot this past
summer to destroy two synagogues in the Bronx. But despite the great job that
all of our first responders do, we certainly think of ourselves as being in the
crosshairs. That is just a fact. And I challenge the Department to continue to
work to devise Homeland Security funding formulas that take this fact into
higher consideration.

"Commissioner Kelly and I have both been to Washington
many times to urge the Federal government to distribute funding solely on threat
levels. National security is a national responsibility, and we can't afford to
let local politics get in the way, and trying to spread the money around as pork
just is irresponsible at the very least.

"At the same time, we are urging Congress to restore
funding for another key part of our defense - the Department's Securing the
Cities initiative. We can't nickel-and-dime the best hope we have for preventing
the worst possible calamity. The explosion of a nuclear device could cost
thousands of lives, devastate our national economy, and plunge us further into
conflict overseas.

"We've just got to start taking these threats seriously,
and for us to do that the Federal government must take New York City seriously,
and give us the resources we need to protect what clearly is the terrorists'
number one target.

"This independent council understands this I think more
than anyone else, that this is no place for politics. And in the coming months,
I hope you will draw on your vast experience and judgment in the fields to
impose tangible guidance and solutions for Department of Homeland Security.

"We just can't be complacent in New York City or in
Washington, DC. And together we've just got to make sure that the Federal
government moves closer to creating a system that more fairly and equitably
attends to the security of this city - and our entire homeland.

"So thank you very much. Have a great day. We'll do
everything we can do make you feel at home, which you have an enormous
responsibility and we count on all of you to provide the guidance that sometimes
political expediency doesn't call for. This is a serious, serious threat and
thank you for all of your dedication, you're providing the kind of security we
need."